Opening Day dud
Sox muster only 2 hits in loss to O’s
There was excitement in the air at Fenway Park as fans returned to the ballpark for the first time since 2019, Alex Cora was welcomed back after a year away and the new-look Red Sox were introduced as they tried to put a miserable 2020 in the rearview mirror.
And then they turned in a dud.
These Red Sox looked a lot like last year’s version. Nathan Eovaldi turned in a solid effort, but their potentially explosive offense was shut down by John Means as the Red Sox lost 3-0 to the Orioles, recording just two hits in a forgettable and chilly Opening Day at Fenway.
Here are three takeaways from the Red Sox’ Opening Day loss:
1. Can’t solve Means
The Red Sox’ bats were as cold as the 37-degree weather, largely due to the arm of Orioles starter Means, who turned in a dominant outing. The Sox managed just two baserunners against him, as Kiké Hernandez opened the first with a single and Xander Bogaerts reached on an error in the second.
But that was it. The Red Sox were otherwise helpless against Means, who finished the day with seven shutout innings, zero walks and five strikeouts.
“He’s a good pitcher,” Cora said. “He’s got good stuff, the ball was moving. He had a good changeup, he was in control of the whole situation. We hit, I think, one line drive the other way. … We didn’t do much offensively.”
The Red Sox weren’t any better against the Orioles’ bullpen, as Tanner Scott and Cesar Valdez combined for two shutout innings to end it. J.D. Martinez’s two-out double in the ninth threatened a late rally, but it wasn’t enough.
“I don’t think we made adjustments,” Cora said of the Red Sox’ approach against Means. “Obviously it’s Opening Day and sometimes emotions take over and you want to do a lot. It seems like early in the game, he didn’t have his fastball. You saw the velocity, it was 90-91. He started relying on his changeup, and then he got his velocity back and he started mixing it up, fastballs up and in, changeups down and away. He had that going for him. Just a tough one. We didn’t do much. He was in total control.”
2. Eovaldi’s strong start wasted
Replacing Eduardo Rodriguez, Eovaldi made his second consecutive Opening Day start, again versus the Orioles, and pitched well. The righty was electric to start the game with a 99 mph fastball for the first pitch of the 2021 season as he went 5L innings while allowing four hits, one walk and striking out four.
But after allowing a leadoff single to Pedro Severino in the sixth, then striking out Cedric Mullins, Cora opted to pull Eovaldi in a scoreless game after 89 pitches. Matt Andriese came on for his Red Sox debut, and the results didn’t go so well. He walked Trey Mancini, Hernandez booted a grounder that allowed Anthony Santander to reach, and with the bases loaded, Ryan Mountcastle hit a two-run wall-ball double to give the O’s a 2-0 lead. It was all they needed.
Cora defended his decision to go to Andriese, saying it was the plan going in with Eovaldi’s pitch count getting high.
“The pitch count was getting where we felt like it just made sense, before the start, that was it for him,” Cora said. “We’ve got to make sure, he’s pitching on regular rest the next one, we’ve got to think now and think ahead. Andriese is a guy, he gets ground balls. He walks Mancini, he gets a ground ball after that. We make an error and then obviously they score two. That’s where we were, pitchingwise, pitch-count wise. We felt comfortable with him going in that situation.”
3. Hernandez had forgettable debut
Hernandez seemed to set the tone in his first at-bat in a Red Sox uniform, hitting an opposite-field single to right in the first in his first game as a leadoff hitter, but any good feelings for the new second baseman were short-lived.
Two batters later, Means picked Hernández off in an awkward-looking play at first as he slipped off the bag. After initially being ruled safe, a video review revealed that the tag from Mancini was applied as both of Hernández’s feet were off the base.
Hernandez would have loved to have that play and his error in the sixth back. With runners on first and second, Hernandez got a sharp ground ball at second for a potential inning-ending double play, but he couldn’t handle it.
Mountcastle then made him pay with the two-run double.
“(I) got my first hit out of the way,” Hernandez said. “Felt good at the moment. Quickly, I didn’t feel great about it after getting picked off. And then, the error I made, hard-hit, topspin, tried to come get it, didn’t get the hop that I wanted, made an error. I think I would have traded that base hit for catching that ball and the outcome of the game would have been different. We probably still would have been playing. Yeah, tough time to make an error there.”